Amping Up My Health Goals

I’ve been meaning to vlog about this, and I would still like to, but by the time I remember I WANT to, I look like something that dug itself out of a grave and well, I’ll spare you the gory visuals.

This whole thing started with Mother’s Day.

I went shopping with my mom. And as usual, I felt like a cow. My mom has lost weight and she’s downright skinny! Me? Not so much.

But the cherry on my humiliating sundae? The picture of me and my mom together.

Wow. Just wow.

It was yet another wake up call for me. I had gained my last pound – it was time to get serious about losing weight – AGAIN.

I go through spurts. Who doesn’t? And my last spurt? Done sprung a leak, ya’ll.

I went to work the Monday after that fateful, eye-opening picture wracking my brain trying to come up with a plan – did I really want to get back on my exercise routine? I mean, I was GOING to exercise, that’s a given anytime you want to lose weight, but I’ve been known to overdo the exercise thing in the past (like getting up at 4:30 every morning, driving to the gym and working out for an hour and a half every day. Oh yeah, I did that for two and a half years!!) and I really didn’t want to go through that strict of a routine this go-around. No. I needed to amp things up a bit – I needed to not only get back to exercising on a consistent basis, more importantly, I needed to re-train myself to eat smarter.

For you see, I had been so used to just eating what I wanted for so long, that I sort of forgot HOW to eat properly. Now that I’m older and my body is going through “THE CHANGE”, I can’t do that anymore.

The Mother’s Day picture was proof of that.

As usual, God was there for me. For out of the blue, one of my co-workers caught me one day and started telling me about this great new protein shake she had started drinking.

WAIT! I promise you it’s not some crazy fad. Well, okay, it might be a fad, but I’m going into this with my eyes wide open. And by that I mean, I KNOW THERE IS NO QUICK FIX, OR MAGIC POTION, TO LOSING WEIGHT. If you’re serious about losing weight, you have to re-train both your body, and your mind, into a new way of thinking.

This co-worker showed me a before picture, a picture of her at her heaviest. And I looked at her with new eyes. The girl HAD lost a ton of weight. So okay, I’d give it a shot.

Here is what I’ve been drinking for the past month:

It’s called Body by Vi and it’s a protein shake.

Before you roll your eyes – I’ve been on it one month and I’ve lost eight pounds. I increased my activity level, but not by much. I cut out ALL CARBS (seriously, no breads, no pastas, etc) and all sugars, obviously. But it goes beyond the obvious sugars (junk food, candy, etc.), I rarely drink orange juice and I check sugar content on everything I eat now.

Not a bad start, if I do say so myself, but I can do better.

The thing is, the shakes? Are expensive. For example, the type of protein drink I’m currently drinking? Costs $100 for 60 shakes. That’s two shakes per day for one month. Yeah. Expensive. HOWEVER, when you consider the amount of money you spend on food in one month’s time and you’re buying less because you’re making healthier food choices and not buying the normal junk you normally buy, you’re probably saving money in the long run.

So consider that.

And if you go this route? You need to be DAMN sure you’re committed to it because it really WILL be a waste of money if you don’t change your eating habits along with drinking two shakes a day.

For example, here is what I consume on a typical day:

Half a glass of orange juice, (but not every day). I know what I said about orange juice. Yes. It has a ton of sugar. But I drink it because, A. it makes me feel good and keeps my immune system strong and B., it helps me stay regular.

One 8 oz shake. I’ve been mixing it with unsweetened Almond milk – which has 40 calories. It’s less fattening, and it’s a lot less gassy than regular cow’s milk and I’ll be honest (when am I NOT honest with you people), I feel pretty good since drinking it. I don’t miss cow’s milk AT ALL. In fact, when I stop the shakes, I doubt if I EVER go back to cow’s milk, quite frankly.

Peanuts or almonds for a mid-morning snack. I know what you’re thinking – NUTS ARE FATTENING, KAREN. And you would be right, BUT, it’s the good kind of fat – the kind of fat that actually helps you burn the bad fat. And it’s got a lot of protein, which is KEY to losing weight – cut out the carbs and sugars and eat more protein.

One 8 oz. shake for lunch.

Cheese for mid-afternoon snack. Or low-fat yogurt. In fact, I’ve been eating A LOT of yogurt lately. Since I’ve stopped eating sugar, the sweetness of the yogurt actually helps curb my sweet craving.

Then I have a light dinner. I stick to meat and veggies. For example, Kevin made sliders (mini-hamburgers) the other night. I ate just the hamburger patty and put a little mustard on it for flavor. (No ketchup – ketchup has too much sugar). I’ve been buying broccoli, so I cut up some broccoli, dipped it into a little ranch dressing and YUM. I also had another piece of cheese. (I’ve been eating more cheese, too. Now you see why I need an occasional glass of orange juice between all of the milk, cheese and yogurt products I’ve been eating lately).

The shakes keep me full for about two hours. Then I just eat a snack. Honestly? I’ve been hungry, but not ravenous and as long as I have a handful of nuts now and again, even that’s under control.

The shakes themselves taste sweet. In fact, the powder smells EXACTLY like cake batter. It’s delicious. In addition to two big bags of powder, they send you flavor packets that you can add to the shakes to, well, shake things up a bit. 🙂 There are also all kinds of recipes for different types of shakes to avoid the monotony.

Though I’m glad I tried this Body by Vi, it’s just too expensive to maintain. So, I’m going to look into other protein drinks that are less expensive.

But the protein supplements alone are not enough – I need to rev this plan up a few RPM’s … I talked to my co-worker again and she told me that in addition to the shakes, she added something else … something that has sped up her metabolism and helped her to lose thirty pounds – THIRTY POUNDS, YA’LL!!!

I’ll tell you what I’m trying next in a different post.

Right now, it’s almost 10:00 p.m. and I’m having trouble keeping my eyes open. I plan on getting up at 5:00 in the morning and driving to a nearby school to use their track so I can get my three mile walk on before I go to work.

Yes. I do believe I have lost my mind, thanks for asking.

All I know is, I’m determined to reshape my body. I’d LIKE to lose forty pounds, we’ll see if I can make that happen.

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About Me

Hello! My name is Karen and welcome! I’m a mom to two young men – Blake (25) and Brandon (22). I’ve been married to the same wonderful, patient, thoughtful and generous man (Kevin) for 27 years.

I work full time in a healthcare clinic – it’s my “day” job. I squeeze in family time and blogging in between all of that. (Okay, I really spend the majority of my “down” time watching YouTube videos or trying to figure out how to play new board games for family game night).

I graduated from college with a B.S in Technical Writing – so I’m a wordy know-it-all, as well as a minor in creative writing – so don’t always believe what I write. *wink*

I believe in Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Writing Well. (I also believe in our Constitution – Don’t Tread on my Rights, Yo).

I can be snark-a-licious, but only when provoked or when confronted with ignorant, ill-informed knuckleheads.